//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Timelapse // by Stik //------------------------------// There were days when Twilight Sparkle wished she hadn’t dared to step outside into the inevitable turbulence of the world beyond her library door, and then there were others when she wished she hadn’t even tried to leave the warmth and familiar security of her bed. Finally, there were the days she wished she didn’t exist at all. Today felt as thought it was shaping up to be one of Those Days. Various jumbled thoughts bounced about the inside of her head, swept about like autumn leaves in the breeze, colliding with everything and generally getting in one anothers’ way until their poor owner couldn’t tell one from another. Twilight squeezed her eyes shut even tighter and shook her head gently, trying to calm them down. The movement rewarded her with a wave of nausea and she stopped abruptly, taking deep, steady breaths to counteract, wondering just what it was she had done the day before. For most ponies their thoughts might turn to what embarrassing things they had said and done after a few too many pints of cider, but for Princess Celestia’s most diligent and talented student these hangovers tended, more often than not, to be the result of over-eager application of magic to a problem that probably didn’t require it. “Twilight!” came a distant, urgent call, breaking through the general background roar. The sound of unsteady hooves thudding against the ground followed it and before long she felt a somewhat frantic poking. Somepony laid a foreleg across her shoulders and began shaking her gently. “Too early,” she mumbled. Her mouth felt dry, so terribly dry. “Thank the stars,” exclaimed the voice, thick with worry. “You’re alive.” “Wish I wasn’t – Applejack?” Twilight managed, recognising her friend at last. She tried to open her eyes, but they seemed reluctant to obey, and when at last they did crack apart she could see nothing but a dark, blurry mess, the lights wavering around disconcertingly. She was certainly not in her bed. Applejack turned to yell over her shoulder. “Rarity! Get over here, Twilight looks… bad.” “Mm’k,” she murmured groggily, trying to unfold her forelegs from under her body. Everything was stiff and achy. “Whoa there, missy,” Applejack exclaimed, turning back to her. Twilight felt strong hooves under her, supporting her weight as she swayed weakly from side to side like a drunkard. “My dear,” cried Rarity, suddenly filling Twilight’s vision, pure and white. Her voice practically oozed concern. “You poor thing, whatever did you do?” Twilight blinked hard a few more times, trying helplessly to clear the gunk that clouded her vision. Things started to come into focus, and she immediately began to regret that. “I don’t know,” she began sluggishly, trailing off as she finally began to take stock of her surroundings. Pinkie Pie was rushing over to the trio from some distance away, an unmistakable pink blur, looking out of place amongst the darkness and fire. Fire…? Twilight stood up straight all of a sudden, eliciting a startled gasp from Applejack as she released her supportive hold. A part of her wanted desperately to believe she was still asleep, the terrible scene all around her was becoming clearer with each frenzied blink, and her legs began to shake a little. The smell of burning timbers, burning thatch, and worse things still filled her senses like water rushing into a gaping hole. The sky was black, thick clouds of smoke obscuring the stars, lit from below with a hellish orange glow as if Tartarus itself had opened up beneath the town. She became aware of the roaring sound all around, punctuated by the sobbing and screams of her fellow ponies and occasionally a splintering crash as something gave way nearby and came tumbling to the ground. She stared mutely ahead, mouth moving but unable to find the words to speak. “Twi?” prompted Applejack again, moving to stand before the panicked mare, close enough that she filled her vision. “Are you with us, Twilight?” “I believe she’s in shock,” Rarity said. “Come, let us go inside.” Twilight let herself be led back to her home, mercifully free of flames. Many windows were broken, however, so even with the thick front door closed the sound of pandemonium outside still came to them, thin and distant. “Oh my gosh, is Twilight okay?” came Pinkie’s hyperactive voice. “Twilight? Are you okay? Are you hungry? I have cake!” Twilight blinked as a thickly iced treat appeared suddenly before her eyes. “Pinkie, hush,” said Rarity, pushing the offering aside and peering into Twilight’s eyes with a frown. “Please say something, Twilight. We’re here for you.” “Fire. Why?” she managed after a lengthy pause as she attempted to corral some thoughts back into their stables. “Ooh, ooh, me, me,” said Pinkie’s voice off to one side, as excitable as ever. “I know this one!” “Pinkie,” Applejack warned, her voice low. Pinkie slumped slightly and sat back on her haunches, trying hard not to speak. “You don’t remember, do you?” Rarity continued with concern. “That villainous Discord attacked Ponyville outright. You did… something. I don’t know what.” “Whatever it was, it worked really really well!” squeaked Pinkie, failing. “Kablooey! All gone!” “Guys!” came a new voice from one of the windows above them. The sound of rain was just beginning to make itself heard over the rest of the noise. “I’ve found some of the old weatherteam, we’ve got some more clouds inbound. Probably won’t stop the fire but it’s gotta help a bit. Flutters is up there, helping them. Who’d’ve thought it?” Rainbow Dash pulled herself through a circular window and dropped to the ground, panting from the exertion of zipping about in the darkness and the dust. She coughed a few times before shaking some of the water from her wings. “There’s a lot of smoke up there, can’t see a thing!” “Good thinkin’, Dash,” said Applejack with a nod to the pegasus. “We need all the help we can get right about now, I’d say.” Discord. All the jumbled thoughts in Twilight’s head had vanished, driven away like fish from a shark prowling in their midst. One thought remained, one terrible name that echoed on and on. With a gasp Twilight recalled the fight, the frightening, unforeseen attack on their home. This time had been different, this time Discord had been taking no prisoners, gone was the chocolate rain and psychological tricks, replaced with monsters from nightmares and dying townsfolk. “He was falling, wreathed in unholy fire like a demon from the deepest depths, about to deliver the killing blow to the town,” she breathed, voice hoarse but steady. “I’d seen that elsewhere, other towns laid to waste, nothing but a smoking crater.” Rainbow Dash gulped visibly, nodding slowly. “I cast…” Twilight stopped, unsure before trailing off into a near sob. “I don’t… remember.” “There, there,” crooned Rarity, wrapping her forelegs around her friend’s neck and nuzzling the side of her head. “Whatever you cast, it worked. We’re still here, and that vile beast is gone.” Twilight leant back against her dear friend, but couldn’t bring herself to smile. “Where’s Spike?” she asked quietly. There was a gut-wrenching pause, a heavy silence in the air. Twilight looked around expectantly, eyes wide with a desperate hope. “He’s gone,” said Rarity, as gently as she could. Twilight shook as she swallowed back a sob. “...dead?” “By Celestia, I hope not,” she replied, squeezing Twilight tighter. “He just… disappeared. He was by your side, before you… by your side during the fight.” “Oh Spike,” Twilight cried, falling to the wooden floor with her hooves over her head. The other four mares looked at the floor, unable to watch. “What have I done?” “Now, come on, girls,” said Applejack with forced calm. “Discord may have been sent runnin’ like a scared cat, but the town still needs us. Equestria still needs us, we’ve gotta put the fires out and help the injured, bring some order to the town! Spike wouldn’t want us mopin’ around like this. More’n likely he’s just run off to help somepony, he is fireproof, after all.” Twilight sniffed hard and blinked away the tears, meeting her friend’s firm gaze square on. There was no arguing with Applejack. “Of course. How can I be so thoughtless.” She hopped to her hooves, shaking her head to clear the last of the fuzz away and strode to the door to peer out into the darkness. Organisation mode had temporarily displaced panic mode. She quickly drew up a mental list, all the things that needed doing, sorted neatly in strict priority order. Outside the torrential rain was hissing and spitting on the hot fires nearby, and already things looked a little less… flame-y. Up in the clouds she could just make out the shapes of many pegasi flitting around, trying their best to marshal the unruly storm clouds into formation. Behind her she felt a rush of air ruffle her fur and feathers as Rainbow Dash took to the air with a powerful beat of her wings. Pinkie Pie shot by her, inexplicably having found a red hard-had and pulling a long firehose behind her. “Huh, didn’t know we even had one of those,” she mused. She turned around in the doorway to address her friend. “Rarity, can you head to the hospital and make sure they are prepared? I have a feeling we’re going to need all hooves on deck, very soon.” “Of course, Twilight. I happen to know a little first aid, myself, in fact.” Twilight took shakily to the skies, intent on helping the weather teams. Rainbow Dash was a competent and charismatic leader, and exceptionally well suited to her role as captain of the local weather teams, but her understanding of fire-fighting was limited at best, and Twilight could already see how to better use their available resources to best effect. The act of organising and just doing something helped to calm her fraught nerves, giving her something to focus on to relieve the grief that was waiting patiently in the wings, ready to jump out if she gave it a moment. Sadly it didn’t do much to soften her headache, but that would fade in time, it always did. Spike was down there, somewhere, she knew, helping out, being the best little assistant he could be. Number One, through and through. Twilight peered through the rain and smoke, almost certain she could see a flash of purple darting between the houses, or the tip of a spaded tail waving in a doorway. Her distraction cost her when a voice cried a wordless exclamation a moment before Twilight found herself entangled with another pony, wings beating uselessly against one another. They fell as one for a second, tumbling in the rain and she uttered a little squeak of filly-like terror. Suddenly they were apart again, and she gasped as an instinct she’d only recently discovered she had took control, her wings snapping open to catch the winds one more, the subtle magic woven into the feathers pushing back against gravity. “Sorry!” said a grey pegasus, hovering in place and wringing her forehooves behind her back with a nervous grin. “My bad.” “No, Derpy, it’s my fault,” Twilight apologised, recognising the former post-mare. Somehow the mare’s lopsided smile suddenly cheered her up and she shook the water from her mane. “I should look where I’m going.” Derpy turned to go, hearing the call of her team leader. “Say, miss Sparkle, thanks for saving us!” she called over her shoulder. “You are very braaaavvveee…” “No problem,” Twilight called back into the howling wind, but the pegasus was long gone. From her vantage point she could see down over the town, and despite her vision being limited by the smoke, rain and cloud she could tell that the whole town wasn’t on fire. Just a large part of it. There was damage elsewhere, crushed buildings and debris littering the street, but the worst of it was in the town’s busy centre. As she watched and directed from the skies she could see the spread of fire lessening piece by piece until the town fell into darkness once more, only the glow of embers visible in the darkness. The weather teams kept the rain coming for some time afterwards, thoroughly soaking everything to be on the safe side. Heedless of the deluge, many ponies were out in the streets, many carrying lanterns, many lighting their way with the glow from their horns. Twilight descended to the ground, fur thoroughly soaked through, but somehow it didn’t seem so bad, the rain carried with it a cleansing sensation, washing away the soot and dust, turning the hard ground into mud and hiding the real damage. The cool water soothed her aching horn. A pony could imagine it was simply another soggy day if they didn’t look up. The atmosphere was a peculiar mixture of relief, jubilation and sorrow, and it seemed as if nopony really knew how to express their emotions. Many simply wandered the sodden streets, splashing from puddle to puddle and staring at the devastation as if in a dream, others were grinning from ear to ear as if life could simply get no better. They had escaped near certain death, Twilight supposed, and had reason to feel that life had colour again, even if it was night-time. She looked up at the skies, hoping to see Luna’s starry canvas painting the heavens, but of course the heavy clouds and wisps of dark smoke till lingered, dropping the last of their rain into her upturned face. It took longer than usual to clear the clouds away, later that night. All the pegasi with the skill had been working for many hours, harder perhaps than many of them had ever worked before, and quite understandably they were exhausted. Once the clouds did begin to part, however, there were gasps from all those still assembled in the street. “Look, mummy!” a small colt cried. “Shooting stars!” “Make a wish, Spiral,” his mother whispered. “There’s lots of them! Can I make lots of wishes?” His mother simply nuzzled the top of his head with a smile, and Twilight felt a weight lift from her heart. There was still light, even in this frightful darkness. As she stared up at the stars her mind began to wander, many of the thoughts that had been scared into hiding earlier crept back out from the shadows, accompanied by many new ones, some more worrying than others. Twilight tried hard to recall any passing comets she might had overlooked, but nothing came to mind. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” said a soft voice from close by. “Sometimes, when I was feeling lonely, I’d go and sit in the meadow and just stare up at the sky for hours and hours. Sometimes I’d see a shooting star, but my wishes never really come true.” “I am glad to see you, Fluttershy,” Twilight said with a sigh, moving to embrace her pegasus friend with a wing. The yellow pony pushed back warmly, and even though she was soaked through and streaked with mud her honest, kind expression was as clean and pure as it had ever been. “I… um… I hope you didn’t mind that I left you to help,” she said, looking down at the floor. “There was so much… pain… down here. I couldn’t… couldn’t…” “It’s okay, Fluttershy, you did the right thing,” Twilight told her, leaning down to meet her friend’s gaze. “I’m proud of you for what you did, I know how much you dislike flying and weather duty. We all needed you this time.” “It was nothing,” she said, still not meeting her gaze. “You… you did far more. That was very brave, facing… him… like that.” “We all do what we can, Fluttershy,” she said sombrely. Up in the sky the somewhat spectacular display was getting ever brighter, the streaks of light coming every few seconds, little starbursts reflected in hundreds of wide eyes. The thoughts inside Twilight’s head whirled ever faster and she winced, scrunching up her eyes as her headache returned. Her horn ached from whatever it was she had cast, and her wings ached from flying for so much longer than she was accustomed to. “How long do you think we’ve been out here?” she asked. “I mean, this night feels awfully long, doesn’t it?” “One heartbeat of this night would have been too long,” the quiet pegasus said wistfully, looking back up at the stars. Twilight glanced behind her, finding her friends all reunited as a group, dirty and tired but safe. All eyes were on the spectacle in the sky. Even Pinkie was lost for words for once, still except for an arrhythmic swishing of her tail from side to side. Almost… twitching. The hairs on the back of Twilight’s neck tingled, a sensation that should probably be put down to the cool wind that blew over the damp ponies. “I do wonder which comet it is,” Twilight mused aloud, eyes narrowing as she watched a particularly bright streak that seemed reluctant to burn up. Instead it seemed to get brighter and brighter, so much so that the other trails faded into nothing by comparison. Twilight squinted further, trying to make out detail. All around there was a shuffling of hooves and a rustle of manes on fur as ponies looked at one another, questions on their lips. They’d all seen shooting stars before, but never quite like this. Several streaks in the sky were getting brighter, so bright now that they were casting visible shadows. “That’s not a comet,” Twilight hissed breathlessly, her voice strangely absent. The tingle in her neck turned into a full-on shiver at last, the hairs standing on end. There was a lot of movement now, ponies shuffling closer to one another, sensing that something new was happening. “Everypony take shelter inside!” Twilight suddenly howled as loud as she could, lighting her horn brightly for attention. “Move!” Dull thuds and rumbles like distant thunder came throbbing through the air, low and ominous but growing in intensity as the lights in the sky became too bright to watch. There was panic now, ponies screaming as they ran in all directions like an upset termite nest. Twilight grabbed Fluttershy, who seemed to be rooted to the spot, the glare reflected in her eyes. As a group they fled back to the library, as always Twilight’s stronghold in times of need. “What’s happenin’, Twi?” called Applejack as they ran. “Is he back?” “I don’t know!” Twilight wailed in reply. Rarity was by her side, thick mud splashing up against her pure white flanks like paint, but she seemed heedless of it as their hooves splashed forwards. “Where are the Elements? We need to mount a defence. Rainbow, can you round up the guards? Get them here, and anypony with strength enough to stand.” “I’m on it,” she said, and was gone in a streak of colour. Rainbow Dash was nothing if not dependable in a crisis. “The Elements disappeared,” Pinkie said, appearing suddenly to Twilight’s side. She had somehow avoided the worst of the mud, Twilight secretly thought that she didn’t slow down long enough for anything to actually stick to her. “When you did your super-duper magic thingie, they just went ‘Pop!’ and that was it. Well, they didn’t actually make a pop noise, but they should have done. Or maybe a fizzle. Fizzle-pop? Yeah!” “What? All of them? Great,” she growled in frustration. “Discord must have done something. I wish I remembered what I was casting! Did I just simply teleport him away? Maybe I caught them in the marker, too? No, they’re too dissimilar, it would have been more effort, unless there was something wrong, and I had to do it. But why? Oh, Celestia, I wish you were here. You’d know what to do! Why would I teleport the elements? It doesn’t make any sense!” “Twilight, you’re rambling,” Applejack warned gently as they skidded to a halt outside the library, turning to face outwards. Any reply was bitten off as the five turned to look upwards. The intensity of the light had faded, but it had made up for it in quantity. Many bright lights were discernable now, moving roughly like a flock of birds, wheeling and twisting around one another as they drew closer. A trail of black smoke followed a couple, and a loud roar could be heard all around, echoing off the hills and buildings. Fluttershy cowered behind them, inching back towards the library with her wings over her head while Applejack tried to comfort her with one eye still on the sky. Rainbow Dash returned with a team of pegasi in tow, a motley collection of tired soldiers and guards, followed by a group of even sorrier looking residents wielding whatever weapons they could. Further behind on the ground many more earth ponies and unicorns hurried towards them. Twilight’s heart fell, at least before they were awake and alert, now everypony was exhausted and their numbers reduced. Too many had fallen. To ice the cake of despair they had lost the Elements of Harmony, their most powerful weapon. “I’m so sorry, everypony,” she whispered to the air. She forcefully swallowed back the lump in her throat and spoke louder, trying to keep her voice clear and steady. “Whatever happens, keep together. We sent him running before, we can do it again. Ponyville won’t succumb to his tyranny!” There were some vague, muffled cheers, lost amongst the roaring. She wasn’t sure anypony would believe her, she certainly didn’t. Something shot overhead, impossibly fast and with a high pitched scream that set teeth on edge, moments later a shockwave of sound rattled the remaining windows and whipped surface water into spray. From somewhere in the town there was a deep thud and a glowing projectile rocketed up through the sky, hissing and sputtering as it spewed white smoke like an impossibly long tail. Guided by magic it tracked one of the other incoming objects until it was lost against the glare, and then in the blink of an eye it exploded into a shower of colourful sparks, strangely cheerful amongst the backdrop of devastation. Another two or three rockets followed, whistling up through the night sky to meet their targets. While they didn’t seem to do much to deter their trajectory they did create a bit more of the sickly looking black smoke, and Twilight couldn’t help but feel a little cheered. “Haha!” laughed Applejack. “It’s that green unicorn, with her darned fireworks! She did a show at the reunion last year. Take that, ya big patchwork quilt!” As if summoned the pony in question came rushing up as more makeshift rockets tore through the air. Her horn was alight, and she wore some strange headpiece full of crystals and delicate metalwork and lights. “I’ve found a use for my range amplifier!” the light green pony told Twilight breathlessly, the device bobbing around atop her head alarmingly as she grinned proudly. “Hi, I’m Lyra, by the way, Lyra Heartstrings.” “Nice to meet you,” Twilight replied, nodding. “How are you…?” “Launching them? Remote! Been working on this for a while, finally found out what it’s for. I’ve got batteries all over town now, about fifty of the big ones at least. That big meanie is going down.” Some more rockets found their marks in the skies above, and the specks of light were beginning to react, weaving and dodging in an effort to avoid the barrage. One of the pegasus guard units had taken to the sky and was tracking another. Twilight squinted and realised that two of the pegasi were carrying unicorns on their back, and as they got closer to one of the injured lights they started throwing small, crackling balls of magical energy in its direction. Abruptly one of the other lights turned and hurtled back towards their injured comrade, thin lines of flashing light piercing the sky. Two ponies fell from the sky suddenly, almost without warning and Twilight watched with horror as they plummeted to the ground with thuds she could almost hear. She shuddered and tried not to be sick. Somewhere nearby another pony had not managed to restrain herself. “Come back!” she wailed hopelessly, the pegasus team were too far away to possibly hear, and to her dismay another two teams had seen their friends fall and had taken to the air, intent on doing something, although it was anypony’s guess what. “Launch more of your rockets,” Twilight ordered, “we’ve got to distract those things.” The others were circling overhead now, their speed greatly reduced. Twilight could see now that they were craft of some sort, like the winged chariots the princesses and the very wealthy would ride about in from time to time, only these weren’t pulled by ponies, and they were far, far bigger. Their shape was sinister, long and pointed, curved like an enormous griffon talon. All at once a hundred trails of light ascended into the sky with a whoosh that outdid even the howling aircraft, and Lyra screwed her face up in concentration as she directed them all individually. They had the desired effect, distracting the craft from the oncoming pegasi and forcing them to break their pattern, scattering to the edges of the sky before coming screaming back over the town like banshees, small rockets of their own tracking back down into the town, seeking the hotspots where Lyra’s fireworks had launched. Applejack saw the danger in time. “Get under cover,” she yelled, forcefully pulling Twilight back into the shelter of the library just as tiny metal projectiles thudded into the ground around them, spitting up angry little fountains of muddy water. All around the town the situation was the same, ponies running for cover and bullets kicking up spray. Some were unlucky, falling in the streets, dead or dying. Twilight cried out in imagined pain, falling to her knees as she watched the slaughter of her townsfolk. The onslaught stopped briefly as the craft passed overhead but in the distance they could be seen banking for another pass. Applejack and Rainbow dashed out during the brief lull, seeing their chance, and ran from body to body, dragging those still alive into the safety of doorways or under fallen walls and masonry. The terrible machines screamed overhead again, shaking the ground with the intensity of their passing and raising more walls of water and chipped stone. Rather than overshooting the town again the aircraft slowed and began to dive, stopping short just before impact with the ground. Twilight squinted from behind the doorframe, trying to watch them, it looked very much as if they were coming to rest on the ground, and if she had her bearings right then they were in one of Ponyville’s town parks, not more than a few minutes away.